Karun Chandhok’s pre-season Ferrari warning could spell bad news for Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 F1 title hopes

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Lewis Hamilton has entered the Formula 1 summer break with two targets in sight.

The start of the 2025 Formula 1 season hasn’t gone to plan for Lewis Hamilton or Ferrari.

Although team principal Fred Vasseur has led his outfit to second in the constructors’ championship, the gap to leaders McLaren has grown to nearly 300 points.

Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc are still waiting for their first Grand Prix win of the year, even if the seven-time world champion tasted victory in the Sprint Race in Shanghai.

There were hopes that an intra-team battle would break out between Hamilton and Leclerc this year, with one of the sport’s all-time greatest drivers coming up against one of the most highly-rated stars on the grid.

Before Hamilton left Mercedes, George Russell finished above him in the championship, and in particular, got the better of the 105-win driver in qualifying.

Leclerc agrees with Russell that Hamilton is F1’s all-time greatest driver, but their ambitions of challenging for a championship this year are already over, with attention now turning to 2026.

F1’s new regulations offer Ferrari a chance to leapfrog McLaren, but Karun Chandhok sent a warning to Hamilton in pre-season that suggests he might already be on the backfoot ahead of next season compared to his teammate.

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Karun Chandhok tells Lewis Hamilton that Ferrari will now ‘gravitate’ towards Charles Leclerc

Chandhok was speaking to Ted Kravitz during The F1 Show’s season preview podcast ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

Kravitz asked: “I want to ask the driver. When Lewis says, and it’s only now that it kind of hits me, when he says it’s up to me now to galvanise the team around me.

“Is that just, does every driver think, yeah, I’m going to do that, never mind about him, Charles Leclerc, who’s been here seven years.

“Or is that a general thing with my teammate? He didn’t say with my teammate. He said, I need to galvanise this team around me.”

Chandhok responded: “I was listening to that and I read it as he’s going to Charles’ team.

“I read it as he’s going to try and get people behind him. But what happens, and Bernie [Collins] would know this in a race team, is inevitably, the team gravitates towards the guy who’s winning, and towards the driver who’s performing.

“So, ultimately, the best way Lewis can galvanise the team around him is by outperforming Charles and doing it.”

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Lewis Hamilton requests personal meeting with Ferrari engine chief over 2026 F1 car

Hamilton explained at the Belgian Grand Prix that he’s been preparing documents for Ferrari to help them with their car development next season.

Leclerc had to hold back laughter when asked about Hamilton’s documents, as he couldn’t believe people were so interested in the work the seven-time world champion was doing behind the scenes.

Hamilton’s relationship with the ground-effect era of cars has been tricky, to say the least.

Switching teams just as the grid converged to a point never seen before in Formula 1 hasn’t helped his cause either.

Hamilton has requested a personal meeting with Enrico Gualtieri to try and get a better idea of how Ferrari’s power units are looking for next season.

It’s expected to be an engine-dominated ruleset, and while Hamilton is unlikely to ever regret joining Formula 1’s most iconic team, he might not want to see the Silver Arrows standing on the top of the podium too often next year.